Israel offers Palestine goodwill gestures

Posted: Thursday, July 25, 2002

Nicole WinfieldThe Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Facing a storm of criticism for its raid on Gaza, Israel offered Palestinians a series of goodwill gestures Wednesday and blamed faulty military intelligence for the deaths of nine children and four other civilians in the fatal attack on a Hamas military chief.

Palestinians, meanwhile, claimed militant groups had signed a cease-fire declaration less than two hours before the attack. Israeli officials dismissed those reports and defended the bombing, even as they admitted intelligence surrounding the attack was flawed.

"It's a tragedy because innocent people got killed. It's not a tragedy because a cease-fire was imminent," said Daniel Taub, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. "Unfortunately that wasn't the case."

As Israelis braced for promised retaliation, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said a troop pullback would go ahead from some occupied areas of the West Bank if they remain calm.

He also said the government had released millions of dollars in blocked Palestinian taxes and issued 4,000 permits to Palestinians who work in Israel.

Each measure already was under negotiation during talks between Peres and the Palestinians before the Tuesday bombing, which killed Salah Shehadeh, who Israel says was responsible for dozens of attacks in the past 22 months of fighting and at the top of their most-wanted list of terrorists.

Peres said he hoped to press forward with negotiations on security and economic issues - including a Palestinian offer to resume security cooperation. Palestinians said there was no decision about continuing the talks.

Abdul Aziz Rantisi, a Hamas spokesman, said any cease-fire was off.

"After yesterday's heinous massacre in Gaza, there will be no more respect for a Zionist child or the so-called Zionist civilians," he said.

As politicians blamed an intelligence failure, the army said it would investigate the air raid on a crowded residential area of Gaza City when entire families were home asleep.

The blast destroyed the building that housed Shehadeh and also killed his wife and one of their children. Three other buildings were damaged.

"The intelligence was apparently not complete," Israeli President Moshe Katsav told Israel Army Radio, saying political leaders bore the responsibility.

With the Israeli leadership admitting problems surrounding the attack, the media began questioning the use of what was reportedly a one-ton bomb in such a densely populated area.

"It's possible that the designation of the bomb was not right," said army spokeswoman Capt. Sharon Feingold.

The head of military planning, Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, said the army had used the weapon because of its accuracy but acknowledged "wrong calculations" were made.

The U.S. and many European and Arab governments condemned the strike, and the Palestinians threatened to take the case to the newly formed International Criminal Court.